Daily Photo Diet & Flickr

In my classes, I encourage people to start looking at photos that others have taken and start to learn by observing what people shot and how they get the image. Flickr is one of the best resources I know for this because you get to see the metedata of each shot like what camera they were using, lens and camera settings. So not only do you get to see some beautiful photography, you get to see how they got that shot! When I was first learning about my camera and all it could do, looking at photos every morning over coffee was an invaluable exercise. Here is a shot that I took that I pulled off Flickr so you can see where the settings are.  Selecting the info [...]

The Diopter

Have you ever been in a situation where you look through your view finder and it is a little cloudy or blurry, but your images are all turning out in focus? Well what could be happening is that your "Diopter" got bumped and caused your view finder to go out of focus. The Diopter is next to the view finder and is used to adjust the view finder to your eyesight. For Canon it is a little dial and for Nikon it is a Slider next to the view finder. Check out Christiana's tip on adjusting the Diopter in the video below.

Learning Photography through Photo Collecting

If you don’t know where to start or what to start shooting, here’s my advice – just do it!  I know, not super helpful.  Once again, practice is key to learning digital photography! This learning photography through photo collecting is a great exercise that can help you get started. One thing that helps me in this area and has stretched my creativity is to have a photo collection.  I love bicycles!  When I started photographing them I suddenly saw them everywhere and started adding to my collection.  I hardly realized that I was practicing! :) During this time we were fortunate enough to be living in Dublin and were able to easily travel to Paris! I loved walking down the side streets and seeing all of the old [...]

Wine Tasting – Novelty Hill Januik Barrel Room

This summer our wine tour photography class tasted at Novelty Hill Januik and DeLille Cellars. I feel the warmth of summer when I picture these places! Novelty Hill Januik has such a cool tasting room! As a former (recovering?) architect, I appreciate the design of Novelty Hill Januik Tasting Room. Even if the wines weren’t very good, I still recommend a drop by just for the space. Luckily, the wines are fabulous! I love that they have barrel rooms visible from the tasting room. I feel like I’m watching the slow magic happen right before my eyes! Ben and I like to go there for lunch from their every changing menu of wood fire pizzas while enjoying wine tasting through their extremely impressive wine menu. When the weather [...]

Wine Tasting – JM Cellars Wine Glasses

Every time I visit JM Cellars I internally scold myself for not being there more often. First of all, the wines are yummy. My favorite is the Longevity. Second of all, the grounds are stunning with pathways to explore all over. You actually feel your blood pressure falling the minute you step out of the car onto the grounds! And third, it’s about a mile and a half from my house! I should be there every weekend! Ben and I had a little mini lunch date on a Friday that was suddenly warm. It felt so good to be outside, glass in hand, listening to Pink Martini piped outside and feeling like we are suddenly on a holiday. When we were filling chilled, we’d just step inside next [...]

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